Gibson Guitar strikes back in feds’ logging probe

Three years ago, Democrats and Republicans joined to expand the nation’s oldest federal wildlife law to cover illegal logging.

But then federal investigators picked Gibson Guitar as the first target of the new provision, confiscating guitars and pallets of ebony two years ago that allegedly came from wood illegally logged in Madagascar. In August they seized more than 100,000 fingerboards allegedly made from imported Indian rosewood, along with electronic files.

Gibson Guitar’s chief executive officer, Henry Juszkiewicz, is striking back with efforts to amend the law, to provide more certainty not just for instrument manufacturers and dealers but also for musicians, who theoretically could run afoul of it by possessing instruments containing illegal wood.